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Sort-of-ish related: A few years back they started making gaming PCs. I was looking for something slick, discreet, but still fairly powerful. I bought a Cors

Sort-of-ish related: A few years back they started making gaming PCs. I was looking for something slick, discreet, but still fairly powerful. I bought a Corsair One, and I've been super happy since then. It's exactly what I wanted and I haven't had any issues with it. So if you were looking at their gaming PCs, you now know 1 random HN reader is super satisfied and recommends them.

cgriswald 6y ago
Have you ever built one? I'm curious how they compare to something I might build myself. They are my go-to for power supplies and memory, and of my three main keyboards and mice, two sets are Corsair (K95 RGB Platinum and Scimitar Pro) used on Linux systems with ckb-next; one is Razer (Blackwidow Chroma v1 and Ouroboros) with their in-house software on Windows for a gaming rig. I much prefer the Corsair stuff.
- gouggoug 6y ago
  I never built my own gaming PC. Teenager me had the knowledge and patience to build one and would have loved too, but didn't have the money at the time. Adult me doesn't have the patience, nor the knowledge anymore, but has the money. I'm also less interested in those huge, full of fancy glowing RGB lights, gaming rigs and more interested in something small, silent and discreet. So, in so many words, I can't compare, but I'm fairly certain it would take me more time than is worth trying to come up and build a rig as slick as the Corsair One.
  - outworlder 6y ago
    Maybe if you need the exact aesthetics of the Corsair this would be difficult. But, if your only experience in building your own PC was from years ago, you'd be in for a pleasant surprise. Nowadays there's very little to worry about. No jumpers, easy cable management, even the front panels are no longer the mess they used to be. You can even avoid dealing with ANY cables at all for your SSD, if you go with the M2 form factor. You can build from start to finish in less than one hour. It takes longer to install the OS (if it's Windows), than it takes to assemble the machine. Of course, then there's part selection. Which is now exceedingly easy, thanks to the likes of https://pcpartpicker.com/ https://pcpartpicker.com/ Don't know what to pick? Well, there's plenty of builds by other users. Pick one, modify to taste. The site will let you know if there are incompatibilities. In my case it even warned me that a GPU I wanted was too big and might not fit. You can even have 'parametric filters'. For instance, say you want 16GB of system memory and you don't care about brand. You can say "I want 16GB, in either 1x16GB or 2x8GB, rated 3 stars or above, pick the cheapest". And it will pick one, usually linking straight to the product page(those may be affiliate links, not sure but I'm ok with that). > I'm also less interested in those huge, full of fancy glowing RGB lights, gaming rigs and more interested in something small, silent and discreet. I got a PC that's only slightly larger than a PS4. No RGB lights or anything. That's entirely up to you, even more so if you are choosing your own parts.
    - sturadnidge 6y ago
      The biggest change for me is there’s no longer a risk of putting a screwdriver through your motherboard when attaching a CPU cooler. Why they didn’t address that a decade or more is beyond me!
    - jhgorrell 6y ago
      Agreed - They are pretty easy to assemble these days. I used the pcpartpicker, like you, and had it done in an hour. Unless you get case which is too small, and you have problems getting you hands in there.
  - ex3ndr 6y ago
    Building PC in 2020 is so easy - like two cables, chase, cpu, ram and video. Drive is probably just m2. So much easier than back in the day.
    - sbierwagen 6y ago
      Chase?
      - ribosometronome 6y ago
        Probably an autocorrect meant to be "case" or "chassis", lucky they both mean the same thing in this context!
    - distances 6y ago
      It's very easy indeed, but will still take hours for component research and hours for building (for a first-timer). It makes sense if you like this kind of thing. If you're not into it, buying prebuilt is a valid option.
      - deaddodo 6y ago
        Eh, IDK. It'll definitely take some research, to maximize everything. But there's so much uniformity these days, that you could figure out your build in an hour or two. And, if you're not going for SFF or the like, have a build complete in less than 30-45 minutes after watching a YouTube video. This isn't the 90's/00's where you had to match graphics interfaces, FSB timing, RAM sockets/timing, modular vs cabled PSUs, set jumpers, configure components' master/slave relationships, run molex's/splitters, maximize board fans, clump case/button/etc connectors, terminate sockets, etc, etc.
        hddherman 6y ago
        There are still plenty of topics that make sense to an experienced builder, but not the novice. * does my motherboard m.2 slot support PCIe or SATA m.2 SSD-s? * on AMD motherboards: will my CPU work out of the box or do I need a loaner CPU to perform a BIOS update? * using the wrong fan header on the motherboard for your AIO water cooler * not setting the proper XMP profile for your RAM Those are the ones that I could think of immediately.
  - gouggoug 6y ago
    Interesting, I didn't know things were so easy now; well, maybe I'll build my next gaming PC then!
    - smabie 6y ago
      Also, you can choose much better quality components for cheaper. Even with economies of scale, it seems like OEMs can't build a high end gaming PC for cheaper than what you can do yourself.
      - hellotomyrars 6y ago
        There are a few exceptions. If you get a mid-range pre-built, especially with sale prices, you can actually save some money and round it out with your own parts to make a nicer, more complete unit. It requires some real comparison shopping for sure, and it's probably isn't worth doing unless you're staring at a hell of a deal but that does happen. The weird thing is how pre-builts seem to tier the products at. You can get Pre-builts with good CPU/GPU combos but absurdly low RAM/Storage quantities. They like to tier at 16GB RAM/500GB SSDs and then go up from there for hundreds of dollars without a change of the CPU/GPU and that really confuses me. It's a shame there is little to no physical retail for this stuff anymore as it used to be easier to find a fire sale on a pre-built that needs to move because of how brick and mortar works. That said, it truly is easy to do it yourself and that has its own satisfaction.
      - jdietrich 6y ago
        Self-build is only meaningfully cheaper if you don't pay for a Windows license. If you place any real value on your time, just buy a system from Puget - their support is first class and they understand the real needs of power users. https://www.pugetsystems.com https://www.pugetsystems.com
  - tylerhou 6y ago
    I recently bought this case: https://formdworks.com/products/t1-black https://formdworks.com/products/t1-black You can build in this case pretty easily as long as you don't try to do fancy things, like custom loop. It's smaller than the Corsair One, and you get better upgrability. It's small and discreet. Silent depends on what parts you pick. There are many other cases that are similar, but not quite as space-optimized. Popular ones include the Ghost S1, and the Ncase M1. All three support the same-caliber specs you would get with a Corsair One. Let me know if you want help selecting parts/building in such a case.
    - WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
      Yikes, and now that's on my to-buy-list. Edit: What I really need is a 5.25" slot on one of these so I can stick in a 3.5" hard drive toaster for forensics work :(
- dogma1138 6y ago
  The One is actually a pretty good deal if you want something of that form factor that isn’t a laptop in a box. It’s completely water cooled and the majority of the parts are reusable/pc compatible. Building something of that small factor will cost you a lot in exotic and custom parts. For what it is the markup isn’t actually terrible it’s pretty cheap considering it costs about as much or even less than some standard tower gaming PCs from big brands and it comes with better hardware. You can build a mini-ITX for cheaper but nothing of that size that and an SFF build will cost you more.
  - mattgreenrocks 6y ago
    Wow, the One looks really slick. I've been wanting to do mITX for the next build but I think I may just buy it.
  - tylerhou 6y ago
    SFF build will not cost you more, unless you custom watercool it. Custom watercooling is only necessary if you're going for a super optimized build. SFF cases are around $250-300, which is $150-200 more than a similar-quality ATX case. SFF CPU coolers are around the same price. SFF PSUs and motherboards have a small markup over ATX. For example, here's a build for $3600. The GPU is not watercooled, though, since you can't fit a second radiator into the NZXT H1. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Cr8cJb https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Cr8cJb. This build has specs equivalent to the Corsair One a100, which retails for $4000. The H1 build also has a better upgrability path. Also, the 2080 Ti's price is massively inflated right now because of Ampere's imminent launch -- this build should really be only $3000. You could also look into the Ncase M1 if you want to watercool the GPU, but I won't create a build for that because you would have to research hardware compatibility. So it's completely feasible to build an SFF computer for less than what Corsair charges.
    - dogma1138 6y ago
      I’m running a 9900K and a 2080ti in a Ghost S1 with a few top hats custom loop and 2 240 rads, the Corsair isn’t a worse deal at that point. That build cost quite a bit more than a Corsair One at similar specs. It’s possible to build an SFF build for cheaper, it will be very hard to do so for the same spec as the One.
- Something1234 6y ago
  Guess what building a pc is not worth it. It's not worth it in frustration or anything else. It's better to buy a commercial business grade desktop with a support contract. They always have some kind of weird power issue or something. However, I might just be butthurt about my desktop that randomly reboots and was built by a friend, and I can't figure out what is wrong with it.
  - DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
    > Guess what building a pc is not worth it. It's not worth it in frustration or anything else. That depends on how much you value the learning-opportunity provided by building your own machine. I certainly do! > It's better to buy a commercial business grade desktop with a support contract. If you're a self-employed SWE who needs a reliable dependable backup machine that you can use the support-contract to get fixed within 24 hours, then yes, I strongly agree. ...but I still think building ones' own primary machine is worth it. > They always have some kind of weird power issue or something I've built 8 machines for myself (and a couple more for friends and family) since I started in 2004 and I've never had an issue with power-supplies because I thoroughly research my options. PSUs are a safety-critical component of your PC: if it misbehaves it could kill you (e.g. if the computer-case goes live or the grounding pin fails - fun!) - or at least destroy everything of value inside it - I guess because I refuse to cheap-out on PSUs I've never had a problem. Actually - there was one incident: back in 2005 I was building my second machine (a box to run Windows Server 2003 on so I could do ASP.NET web-development without needing to install IIS and SQL Server on my XP machine) and the PSU I ordered online was delayed, so I went to my parents' town's small-biz local PC shop and asked if they had any PSUs and all they had was a second-hand jobbie they gave me in a plastic carrier-bag for £20 - that PSU failed after a few days - just in-time for my online-order PSU to arrive.
    - WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
      Also, fully modular power supplies are a must for most builds for me.
  - xfer 6y ago
    It might not be worth it for you, but it definitely is for a lot of people, i saved a lot of money not buying premade PCs that you have to chase people for minor issues.
- tambeb 6y ago
  I'm not a gamer and honestly couldn't even tell you the last time I played a game, but I do build my own PCs and build them basically as maxed out overclocked gamer rigs because I just like having the raw power. For what it's worth I've always preferred using stuff from Corsair. Their quality is top notch. Right now my PC's case, RAM, most fans, power supply, and water cooling are from them. I give my computers, servers, etc., pseudo code names for the LAN and my current PC is actually 'CORSAIR'.
deleted 6y ago
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shasts 6y ago
Can Corsair One run Linux? I have heard that water cooling software for example does not have Linux support.
- gouggoug 6y ago
  I managed to install Ubuntu without trouble, but I've seen complains online about subpar Linux support.
- wheybags 6y ago
  I use a corsair aio in a custom build. It's fine. It's exactly the same as using an aio on windows without installing icue (their device management software, which is pretty shit). You can't set custom fan / pump speed curves, but the defaults are fine. I'm cooling a 3950x and I've had no issues with temperature. You also can't adjust the LEDs but whatever.
  - formerly_proven 6y ago
    Bloatware like iCUE (iirc one of the worst offenders) can reduce game FPS by 10-20 %, which is roughly the performance difference between one or two tiers of graphics hardware.
    - shajznnckfke 6y ago
      That’s wild, how does it do that? What resource does it consume?
- numpad0 6y ago
  That usually means LED control. Water cooling itself has nothing to control, but there’s just the pump to be run at full speed at all time, and fans to cool radiators like you normally do with air coolers.
  - mekkkkkk 6y ago
    Don't you want to control pump/fans based on load and temperature though?

cgriswald 6y ago

Have you ever built one? I'm curious how they compare to something I might build myself. They are my go-to for power supplies and memory, and of my three main keyboards and mice, two sets are Corsair (K95 RGB Platinum and Scimitar Pro) used on Linux systems with ckb-next; one is Razer (Blackwidow Chroma v1 and Ouroboros) with their in-house software on Windows for a gaming rig. I much prefer the Corsair stuff.

gouggoug 6y ago
I never built my own gaming PC. Teenager me had the knowledge and patience to build one and would have loved too, but didn't have the money at the time. Adult me doesn't have the patience, nor the knowledge anymore, but has the money. I'm also less interested in those huge, full of fancy glowing RGB lights, gaming rigs and more interested in something small, silent and discreet. So, in so many words, I can't compare, but I'm fairly certain it would take me more time than is worth trying to come up and build a rig as slick as the Corsair One.
- outworlder 6y ago
  Maybe if you need the exact aesthetics of the Corsair this would be difficult. But, if your only experience in building your own PC was from years ago, you'd be in for a pleasant surprise. Nowadays there's very little to worry about. No jumpers, easy cable management, even the front panels are no longer the mess they used to be. You can even avoid dealing with ANY cables at all for your SSD, if you go with the M2 form factor. You can build from start to finish in less than one hour. It takes longer to install the OS (if it's Windows), than it takes to assemble the machine. Of course, then there's part selection. Which is now exceedingly easy, thanks to the likes of https://pcpartpicker.com/ https://pcpartpicker.com/ Don't know what to pick? Well, there's plenty of builds by other users. Pick one, modify to taste. The site will let you know if there are incompatibilities. In my case it even warned me that a GPU I wanted was too big and might not fit. You can even have 'parametric filters'. For instance, say you want 16GB of system memory and you don't care about brand. You can say "I want 16GB, in either 1x16GB or 2x8GB, rated 3 stars or above, pick the cheapest". And it will pick one, usually linking straight to the product page(those may be affiliate links, not sure but I'm ok with that). > I'm also less interested in those huge, full of fancy glowing RGB lights, gaming rigs and more interested in something small, silent and discreet. I got a PC that's only slightly larger than a PS4. No RGB lights or anything. That's entirely up to you, even more so if you are choosing your own parts.
  - sturadnidge 6y ago
    The biggest change for me is there’s no longer a risk of putting a screwdriver through your motherboard when attaching a CPU cooler. Why they didn’t address that a decade or more is beyond me!
  - jhgorrell 6y ago
    Agreed - They are pretty easy to assemble these days. I used the pcpartpicker, like you, and had it done in an hour. Unless you get case which is too small, and you have problems getting you hands in there.
- ex3ndr 6y ago
  Building PC in 2020 is so easy - like two cables, chase, cpu, ram and video. Drive is probably just m2. So much easier than back in the day.
  - sbierwagen 6y ago
    Chase?
    - ribosometronome 6y ago
      Probably an autocorrect meant to be "case" or "chassis", lucky they both mean the same thing in this context!
  - distances 6y ago
    It's very easy indeed, but will still take hours for component research and hours for building (for a first-timer). It makes sense if you like this kind of thing. If you're not into it, buying prebuilt is a valid option.
    - deaddodo 6y ago
      Eh, IDK. It'll definitely take some research, to maximize everything. But there's so much uniformity these days, that you could figure out your build in an hour or two. And, if you're not going for SFF or the like, have a build complete in less than 30-45 minutes after watching a YouTube video. This isn't the 90's/00's where you had to match graphics interfaces, FSB timing, RAM sockets/timing, modular vs cabled PSUs, set jumpers, configure components' master/slave relationships, run molex's/splitters, maximize board fans, clump case/button/etc connectors, terminate sockets, etc, etc.
      - hddherman 6y ago
        There are still plenty of topics that make sense to an experienced builder, but not the novice. * does my motherboard m.2 slot support PCIe or SATA m.2 SSD-s? * on AMD motherboards: will my CPU work out of the box or do I need a loaner CPU to perform a BIOS update? * using the wrong fan header on the motherboard for your AIO water cooler * not setting the proper XMP profile for your RAM Those are the ones that I could think of immediately.
- gouggoug 6y ago
  Interesting, I didn't know things were so easy now; well, maybe I'll build my next gaming PC then!
  - smabie 6y ago
    Also, you can choose much better quality components for cheaper. Even with economies of scale, it seems like OEMs can't build a high end gaming PC for cheaper than what you can do yourself.
    - hellotomyrars 6y ago
      There are a few exceptions. If you get a mid-range pre-built, especially with sale prices, you can actually save some money and round it out with your own parts to make a nicer, more complete unit. It requires some real comparison shopping for sure, and it's probably isn't worth doing unless you're staring at a hell of a deal but that does happen. The weird thing is how pre-builts seem to tier the products at. You can get Pre-builts with good CPU/GPU combos but absurdly low RAM/Storage quantities. They like to tier at 16GB RAM/500GB SSDs and then go up from there for hundreds of dollars without a change of the CPU/GPU and that really confuses me. It's a shame there is little to no physical retail for this stuff anymore as it used to be easier to find a fire sale on a pre-built that needs to move because of how brick and mortar works. That said, it truly is easy to do it yourself and that has its own satisfaction.
    - jdietrich 6y ago
      Self-build is only meaningfully cheaper if you don't pay for a Windows license. If you place any real value on your time, just buy a system from Puget - their support is first class and they understand the real needs of power users. https://www.pugetsystems.com https://www.pugetsystems.com
- tylerhou 6y ago
  I recently bought this case: https://formdworks.com/products/t1-black https://formdworks.com/products/t1-black You can build in this case pretty easily as long as you don't try to do fancy things, like custom loop. It's smaller than the Corsair One, and you get better upgrability. It's small and discreet. Silent depends on what parts you pick. There are many other cases that are similar, but not quite as space-optimized. Popular ones include the Ghost S1, and the Ncase M1. All three support the same-caliber specs you would get with a Corsair One. Let me know if you want help selecting parts/building in such a case.
  - WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
    Yikes, and now that's on my to-buy-list. Edit: What I really need is a 5.25" slot on one of these so I can stick in a 3.5" hard drive toaster for forensics work :(
dogma1138 6y ago
The One is actually a pretty good deal if you want something of that form factor that isn’t a laptop in a box. It’s completely water cooled and the majority of the parts are reusable/pc compatible. Building something of that small factor will cost you a lot in exotic and custom parts. For what it is the markup isn’t actually terrible it’s pretty cheap considering it costs about as much or even less than some standard tower gaming PCs from big brands and it comes with better hardware. You can build a mini-ITX for cheaper but nothing of that size that and an SFF build will cost you more.
- mattgreenrocks 6y ago
  Wow, the One looks really slick. I've been wanting to do mITX for the next build but I think I may just buy it.
- tylerhou 6y ago
  SFF build will not cost you more, unless you custom watercool it. Custom watercooling is only necessary if you're going for a super optimized build. SFF cases are around $250-300, which is $150-200 more than a similar-quality ATX case. SFF CPU coolers are around the same price. SFF PSUs and motherboards have a small markup over ATX. For example, here's a build for $3600. The GPU is not watercooled, though, since you can't fit a second radiator into the NZXT H1. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Cr8cJb https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Cr8cJb. This build has specs equivalent to the Corsair One a100, which retails for $4000. The H1 build also has a better upgrability path. Also, the 2080 Ti's price is massively inflated right now because of Ampere's imminent launch -- this build should really be only $3000. You could also look into the Ncase M1 if you want to watercool the GPU, but I won't create a build for that because you would have to research hardware compatibility. So it's completely feasible to build an SFF computer for less than what Corsair charges.
  - dogma1138 6y ago
    I’m running a 9900K and a 2080ti in a Ghost S1 with a few top hats custom loop and 2 240 rads, the Corsair isn’t a worse deal at that point. That build cost quite a bit more than a Corsair One at similar specs. It’s possible to build an SFF build for cheaper, it will be very hard to do so for the same spec as the One.
Something1234 6y ago
Guess what building a pc is not worth it. It's not worth it in frustration or anything else. It's better to buy a commercial business grade desktop with a support contract. They always have some kind of weird power issue or something. However, I might just be butthurt about my desktop that randomly reboots and was built by a friend, and I can't figure out what is wrong with it.
- DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
  > Guess what building a pc is not worth it. It's not worth it in frustration or anything else. That depends on how much you value the learning-opportunity provided by building your own machine. I certainly do! > It's better to buy a commercial business grade desktop with a support contract. If you're a self-employed SWE who needs a reliable dependable backup machine that you can use the support-contract to get fixed within 24 hours, then yes, I strongly agree. ...but I still think building ones' own primary machine is worth it. > They always have some kind of weird power issue or something I've built 8 machines for myself (and a couple more for friends and family) since I started in 2004 and I've never had an issue with power-supplies because I thoroughly research my options. PSUs are a safety-critical component of your PC: if it misbehaves it could kill you (e.g. if the computer-case goes live or the grounding pin fails - fun!) - or at least destroy everything of value inside it - I guess because I refuse to cheap-out on PSUs I've never had a problem. Actually - there was one incident: back in 2005 I was building my second machine (a box to run Windows Server 2003 on so I could do ASP.NET web-development without needing to install IIS and SQL Server on my XP machine) and the PSU I ordered online was delayed, so I went to my parents' town's small-biz local PC shop and asked if they had any PSUs and all they had was a second-hand jobbie they gave me in a plastic carrier-bag for £20 - that PSU failed after a few days - just in-time for my online-order PSU to arrive.
  - WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
    Also, fully modular power supplies are a must for most builds for me.
- xfer 6y ago
  It might not be worth it for you, but it definitely is for a lot of people, i saved a lot of money not buying premade PCs that you have to chase people for minor issues.
tambeb 6y ago
I'm not a gamer and honestly couldn't even tell you the last time I played a game, but I do build my own PCs and build them basically as maxed out overclocked gamer rigs because I just like having the raw power. For what it's worth I've always preferred using stuff from Corsair. Their quality is top notch. Right now my PC's case, RAM, most fans, power supply, and water cooling are from them. I give my computers, servers, etc., pseudo code names for the LAN and my current PC is actually 'CORSAIR'.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

shasts 6y ago

Can Corsair One run Linux? I have heard that water cooling software for example does not have Linux support.

gouggoug 6y ago
I managed to install Ubuntu without trouble, but I've seen complains online about subpar Linux support.
wheybags 6y ago
I use a corsair aio in a custom build. It's fine. It's exactly the same as using an aio on windows without installing icue (their device management software, which is pretty shit). You can't set custom fan / pump speed curves, but the defaults are fine. I'm cooling a 3950x and I've had no issues with temperature. You also can't adjust the LEDs but whatever.
- formerly_proven 6y ago
  Bloatware like iCUE (iirc one of the worst offenders) can reduce game FPS by 10-20 %, which is roughly the performance difference between one or two tiers of graphics hardware.
  - shajznnckfke 6y ago
    That’s wild, how does it do that? What resource does it consume?
numpad0 6y ago
That usually means LED control. Water cooling itself has nothing to control, but there’s just the pump to be run at full speed at all time, and fans to cool radiators like you normally do with air coolers.
- mekkkkkk 6y ago
  Don't you want to control pump/fans based on load and temperature though?